Toilets

Suwon is home to Korea’s latest theme park: the “Restroom Cultural Park” (수원 화장실 문화공원), which opened on 4 July 2012. Suwon is the city that launched the “Making Beautiful Public Restrooms” project in 1997, and lists its top conveniences on the city website. (via Rocket News; photo: KBS) Keywords: Places: Suwon-si Other tags: Toilets

As I looked at the Haewooso garden for the first time, of course the first thing I noticed was the structure at the back of the 4m x 5m plot – the privy after which the Haewooso garden is named. It was set at the end of a rustic path which looked as if it […]

Not many Koreans will have heard of Jihae Hwang. In fact, probably more Brits have heard of her. She has recently been on national TV here, with coverage in the best broadsheet newspapers. The English are known for their love of gardening. On sunny Spring Sundays and Bank Holidays, garden centres are crammed with people […]

It is the first time that a Korean garden has been shown at the Chelsea Flower Show, and designer Jihae Hwang has been rewarded with a gold medal and the accolade of Best Artisan Garden. Rather like at Cannes, where there’s the main event and Un Certain Regard, at Chelsea there’s the Show Gardens and […]

The second of two extracts from the early pages of Park Wan-suh’s Who ate up all the shinga? dealing with the memories of her childhood existence in the countryside near Kaesong in the 1930s and early 1940s, posted to coincide with the Korean garden at the Chelsea Flower Show this coming week, which features an […]

To coincide with the Korean garden at the Chelsea Flower Show this coming week, which features an outside toilet, here’s the first of two extracts from Park Wan-suh’s Who ate up all the shinga? The outhouse, it seems, was much more than a place for moving the bowels. Park Wan-suh was born in 1931 and […]

This is the first time a Korean design has been featured as a show garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, the official opening of the London social season. People not so familiar with Korean culture may raise an eyebrow over the theme of the garden – we Brits are all children at heart and think […]

The Korean Toilet Association makes it into the news again. If you’re looking for an innovative public-hygiene-themed mini-break in Korea you could do worse than rent a toilet-shaped house for the night. All proceeds will go to support that splendid and worthwhile organisation. HT to Jim Hoare. Links: World’s first toilet house to be built […]

Revealing my schoolboy sense of humour, I couldn’t resist posting this link to an article about the Korea-based World Toilet Association “racing to rescue Cambodia” Toilets are no longer a space for excretion only; they are becoming the central place in our daily lives where cleanness, relaxation, and aesthetics are important. Read on at expat-advisory.com. […]

A post by Mark Russell over at Korea Pop Wars about a particular piece of junk mail he got recently – the first issue of Toilet World – prompts me to link to two other toilet-related articles which I’ve had in my inbox for a while. Links: Korea Poop Wars – Mark Russell at Korea […]